The sensational Ducati 916

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Ayrton Senna was one of Formula One’s most legendary drivers. The Brazilian driver, who won the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship in 1988, 1990 and 1991, was revered for his breathtaking risk-taking, competitiveness and uncompromising ambition. In 1994, after winning the European Grand Prix, Senna announced a deal with his favourite motorcycle brand, Ducati, and agreed to name a limited edition Ducati Senna bike after himself. The bike was based on the iconic 916 model designed by Massimo Tamburini, considered by many to be one of the greatest, but was a distinct model from the standard bright red 916. In honour of Senna, Ducati produced 300 Senna 1s in dark grey, 300 Senna 2s in silver grey and 300 Senna 3s in deep black, all with a metallic sheen and red wheels, carbon fibre bodywork enhancements and uprated suspension.

A few months before the bike’s launch, in May 1994, Senna died at the San Marino Grand Prix after crashing into a concrete barrier at 210 km/h. The bike was finally presented as a tribute that same year.

Thirty years on, the bike remains one of the most beloved and is now a market in which buyers have much to gain. “If you have the same kind of guts and judgement when speculating on a classic bike that Ayrton Senna had on a race circuit, then you can certainly do some very good business,” says Chris Mayhew, owner of Lusso Veloce in Leicestershire, which specialises in Italian bikes.

I would drive it to the underground parking lot and set off all the car alarms.

The older and newer the bike, “the more collectible it is,” says Mayhew. A bike that’s practically as good as new “is a collector’s item, and they fit well into collections,” says Mark Bryan of specialist vehicle retailer Iconic Auctioneers. He sold an unregistered dark grey 1995 Senna 1, number 042 (the 42nd produced), with just three “miles of oomph” on the odometer, for a record £45,000 in July 2023 to an anonymous racing driver. Number 223, a Senna 1 that had done just 519 miles, sold for £38,700 in February 2023.

But “if you’ve got a 11,000-mile Senna, what’s another 1,000?” says Bryan. Sevens & Classics in Kent is selling a 1997 Senna 2 (number 222 in the production line) with 28,000 miles on the clock for £19,995. Moto Strada in Lancashire has a late Senna 1 with 9,225 miles on the clock for £24,995, and a Malaysian Senna 2 import with 16,508 miles on the clock for £18,995. These machines have been and can still be enjoyed on the road.

For those looking to preserve value, origins are key. “It has to have low mileage and a full service history, and that’s what will make it worthwhile in the future,” says Mayhew. A carefully preserved bodywork is essential. Mayhew had a client who bought a Ducati Senna as an investment and decided to sell it because storage was proving too expensive. “I had to say to him, ‘I can’t sell it. ’ It had been crashed on both sides at least once, it had non-standard bodywork, it was an import, it had corrosion. It was basically a nail through and through.” By contrast, he recently advised a client to buy a Senna 2 that had done 3,400 miles but looked new. “The client sent me to look at it – it was perfect in every way.” Mayhew bought it at auction for £22,500 and shipped it to the client in Miami.

Because of limited production, luck is a key factor in finding a Senna. Former City dealer Trevor Chiddicks thought he had missed his chance to buy a Senna 1 in 1995. A year later, one of his colleagues was visiting the Ducati factory with a company executive while advising him on a financial project, when he spotted an unfinished Senna 1 parked in a corner. It turned out to be the last one.

Chiddicks used it to commute to work in Canary Wharf and around his home on the Essex-Suffolk border. “The noise was sensational – I’d drive it into the Credit Suisse underground car park and it would set off all the alarms in the car. What a bike. It was completely planted on the road – you had to be absolutely committed to riding it. It was a real paradigm shift.” But after 765 kilometres of riding, he decided to retire it and put it in a place in the hallway. It was too good to keep on doing miles.